Emotion

Question 1

how to classify/measure emotion

Answer 1

direct and indirect measures

Question 2

direct measures

Answer 2

• Manipulation of emotional state and ask self-report

* Recognition of facial expression

Question 3

indirect measures

Answer 3

• Arousal of autonomic nervous system Galvanic skin response - GSR or SCR
• Judgment and decision making - evaluate possible choices
• Inhibition and facilitation of response - Emotional stroop task

Question 4

autonomic nervous system

Answer 4

sympathetic and parasympathetic

Question 5

sympathetic nervous system

Answer 5

speeds heart rate and respiration, diverts blood to muscles in preparation for response

Question 6

parasympathetic nervous system

Answer 6

slows heart rate and respiration, diverts blood to digestive system

Question 7

Orbitofrontal Cortex

Answer 7

• responsible for social and emotional decision making
• patients with damage to orbitofrontal cortex often mimic the actions of others and show utilization behavior (use a stimulus in sight even when inappropriate)
• patients can describe their actions but show emotional detachment from consequences
• Antisocial, often can’t inhibit anger/violence
• do not have SCR

Question 8

Phineas Gage

Answer 8

emotional, frequent outbursts of anger, rage,

couldn’t inhibit inappropriate behavior

Question 9

frontal lobotomies

Answer 9

no outward signs of emotion
no facial expression
no feelings toward other people
felt empty, zombie-like
Other patients lose prosody = emotional
component of speech

Question 10

SCR

Answer 10

Skin Conductance Response - measures sweat gland activity- a signal of arousal

Question 11

Iowa Gambling Task

Answer 11

“bad decks” higher worth, higher loss
“good decks” lower worth, but lower loss
patients with damage to orbitofrontal cortex continued to choose bad deck because they have no sense of risk

Question 12

somatic marker hypothesis

Answer 12

Do Pts fail to generate the anticipatory SCR, and therefore fail to learn the association?
Antonio Damasio: somatic markers (bodily sensations associated with emotions) are necessary for emotional learning and decision making

Question 13

emotional marker hypothesis

Answer 13

Do Pts fail to associate their actions with reinforcement, and therefore show no anticipatory SCR?
Ed Rolls: orbitofrontal cortex necessary for such learning

Question 14

The Amygdala

Answer 14

-processes emotional significance of stimuli
-damage to amygdala -> difficulty recognizing facial
emotions
-reduced fear
-impaired conditioned fear
response
-in fMRI studies, the amygdala is activated by emotional (esp. scary) stimuli, even if Ss are not aware of them

Question 15

The Amygdala: conditioned fear response

Answer 15

• Amygdala lesions impair fear conditioning in animals and humans
• Impairment of implicit learning: human Pts do learn explicitly that a stimulus is associated (predicts) a shock, but show no SCR to the conditioned stimulus
(this happens whether Ss learn the association through conditioning, or through experimenter’s instructions)

Question 16

Amygdala: Role in emotional learning

Answer 16

• deficit in fear conditioning following amygdala damage but intact conscious knowledge of the association between CS and UCS
• indicates role in explicit emotional learning

Question 17

Amygdala and explicit memory

Answer 17

Amygdala modulates the strength of explicit
memory for emotional events
explicit memory can be formed despite amygdala
lesions (ie. hippocampus!) but amygdala allows better recall over long-term for emotional events
eg. arousing and nonarousing events remembered equally well after the event, but arousing events not forgotten as quickly;
however, amygdala patients don’t show this advantage for arousing events